off the rind, but fo awkwardly that great part of the fruit
is wafted. If, inftead of fiffi, he has flelh, he muft have fome
fuccedaneum for a knife to divide i t ; and for this purpofe a
piece of bamboo is toiled to him, of which he makes the ne-
ceflary implement by fplitting it tranfverfely with his nail.
While all this has been doing, fome of his attendants have
been employed in beating bread-fruit with a fton'e p'eftle
■ upona block o f wood; by being,beaten in this manner, and
fprinkled from time to time with water, it is reduced to the
xonfiftence of a foft pafte, and is then put into avefiel fome-
what like a butcher’s tray, and either made Up alone,' or
mixed with banana or mahie, according to the tafte of' the
mailer, by pouring water upon it by degrees and fqueezing
it often through the hand: under this operation it acquires
the confidence of a thick cuftard, and a large cocoa-nut ihell
full of it being fet before him, he fips it as we ihould do a
jelly i f we had no fpoon to take it from the glafs: the meal
is then finifhed by again waffling his hands and his mouth.
After which the cocoa-nut fhells are cleaned, and every thing
that is left is replaced in the bafket,
The quantity of food which thefe people eat at a meal is
prodigious : I have fecn one man devour two or three fifties
as big as a perch; three bread-fruits, each bigger than two
fifts ; fourteen or fifteen plantains or bananas, each of them
fix or feven inches long, and four or five round; and near a
quart of the pounded bread-fruit, which is as fubftantial as
the thickeft unbaked cuftard. This is fo extraordinary that
I fcarcely expeft to be believed ■; and I would not have related
it upon my own fingle teftimony, hut Mr. Banks, Dr.
Solander and moil of the other Gentlemen, have had ocular
demonftration of its truth, and know that I mention them
upon the occafion.
It
It is very wonderful, that thefe people, who are remarkably
fond of fociety, and particularly that of their women,
ihould exclude its pleafures from the table, where among
all other nations, whether civil or favage, they have been
principally enjoyed. How a meal, which every where elfe
brings families and friends together, came to feparate them
here, we often enquired, but could never learn. They eat
alone, they faid, becaufe it was right; but why it was right
to eat alone, they never attempted to tell us: fuch, however,
was the force of habit, that they exprefled the ftrongeft dif-
like, and even difguft, at our eating in fociety, efpecially
with our women, and of the fame victuals. At firft, we
thought this ftrange Angularity arofe from fome fuperfti-
tious opinion ; but they conftantly affirmed the contrary.
We obferved alfo fome caprices in the cuftom, for which we
could as little account as for the cuftom itfelf. We could
never prevail with any of the women to partake of the victuals
at our table when we were dining in company; yet
they would go, five or fix together, into the fervants apartments,
and there eat very heartily of whatever they could
find, of which I have before given a particular inftance; nor
were they in the leaft difconcerted if we came in while they
were doing it. When any of us have been alone with a woman,
ihe has fometimes eaten in our company; but then
ffie has exprefled the greateft unwillingnefs that it ihould
be known, and always extorted the ftrongeft promiles of
fecrecy.
Among themfelves, even two brothers and two fillers have
each their feparate bafkets, with provifion and the apparatus
of their meal. When they firft vifited us at our tents, each
brought his baiket with him; and when we fat down to
table, they would go out, fit down upon the ground, at two
or three yards diftance from each other, and turning their
V ol. II. D d faces